


All Eye See is Purple

by shslAO3_fanficWriter



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Phantom Thief, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, M/M, Phantom Thief AU, Reincarnation, oumasaiweek2k19, there is some violence in the beginning, this is very Saihara centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 05:14:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19266562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shslAO3_fanficWriter/pseuds/shslAO3_fanficWriter
Summary: Shuichi Saihara has been chasing an elusive phantom thief dressed clad in white for years.  Finally, he's face-to-face in the final showdown, but there's something about the criminal's eyes that seem familiar.





	1. The Phantom Thief

**Author's Note:**

> This is for oumasaiweek2k19 Day 4: Phantom Thief or Casino  
> If you want to skip over the part with violence, scroll down to the first ~~~~~  
> Anyway~ I hope you enjoy qwq

There's a clack in the halls and Shuichi whips his head around, chasing the echo and scanning around for any disturbance in the light. Not a single shadow moves, yet the footsteps progressively get louder and louder. The moon shines outside and its light filters through the curtains, creating the only semblance of light in the abandoned hallway, but it's just enough to alert him of the fluttering cape surrounding him. Shuichi ducks out of the way and ricochets off the wall, using the momentum to have his gun flow through the air and aimed up at the thief, and the adrenaline to shoot.

The gunshot resounds through the building, and the scurrying of wings follow along with it as a family of birds nesting outside flee. Shuichi pants, his head ringing and eyes hazing over from the combined fear of both missing the criminal and actually hitting him. The slow _plip…plop…_ of liquid hitting the ground sends a tremor through Shuichi's body, and his knees buckle, having him collapse to the ground, his weapon scraping away at the floor as it slides out of his grip. _Is this the end? Is his years-long chase after the elusive phantom thief finally over?_ His chest constricts and he feels his eyes well up, his shoulders shaking slightly. _This is it.... He's dead._ A shaky breath escapes Shuichi and his body feels weak. _This is the end._

"Nishishi! How long are you going to lay on the floor, huh? _Geez_ , your buddies outside are going to think _I_ shot _you_! Although I must say, I'm impressed that you were finally able to pull the trigger today, Detective~" Gloved hands begin to clap and the thief grins down widely at the exhausted man below him. "You should really keep your eyes open when you shoot, though. Nishishi, what's with that face? You didn't _actually_ think you hit me, did you?"

"But…there was blood..."

"Oh, you mean this?" From his pockets, the thief reveals a vial of liquid and pours it slowly onto the floor, repeating the same dripping sound from earlier. "Like I said~ you really ought to keep your eye—" there's no time for the man to continue his taunts; a bullet is shot into his back, his guard down for once. The reinforcements surround the bleeding criminal and fawn over Shuichi, but he doesn't respond. The two on the floor look to each other, and there's something about the purple in the thief's eyes that make Shuichi feel like _he_ was the one who was just shot in the back.

~~~~~

The phantom thief runs down the hall, his heels never touching the ground as he sprints away from the guards chasing him. He's been doing this for about two years now; two years of stealing jewels, but there's still something missing in his life. Every night is a dream full of hazy memories that he knows aren't real, but at the same time, he can feel it in his very core that they aren't just dreams. They're something _more_. The blood, the pain, the tears. But most importantly, those _eyes._

He rounds a corner and the fluttering curtains are just before him, the moon shining just as brightly before him as that fateful night. There are screams behind him as usual, but the only thing he can hear in this hallway is a gunshot. Of course, there isn't one, but he can hear it all the same. Reaching the window, his shoe meets the edge and he's leaping outside, twenty stories above the spectators below. Behind his cape, a contraption unfolds to reveal a black hang-glider and the thief flies away into the night.

"SAIHARA!" A police officer grips the windowsill, his knuckles blanching at the force. His scowl is present as he watches his ex-co-worker glide with ease until he's no longer seen. After waiting for a bit, Shuichi's silhouette can be seen against the bright moon.

Shuichi lands on the roof of an old apartment complex and dangles his legs over the edge as he leans back on his hands and looks up at the stars. Reaching into his pocket, Shuichi retrieves a large, lavender jewel and holds it up in front of his eye, the constellations refracting between the cut faces. Two years of stealing jewels, and yet the white phantom thief hasn't woken up yet. Will he ever? Who can say...

"It's a clear night out, perfect for star gazing." A man in an aubergine jacket sits besides him, the sleeve flapping limply in the wind. "I don't think using a gem as a magnifying glass really does them justice, though. Ya gotta use a telescope!" As he shouts, he punches his fist into his open palm. Shuichi is startled by the enthusiasm, but looks back to where the man points afterwards, towards a telescope.

"Were you...ah, looking at the stars?"

"Well I was gonna! But then I saw you out here with that big, fancy jewel! Where'd you get that anyhow?"

"Ah, it was a gift." Shuichi has always felt weird about lying, but it's not like he can really tell the truth at the moment. The man doesn't seem to know who he is, and Shuichi would like to keep it that way.

"Woah! From like, a girlfriend or boyfriend or something? Lucky! How'd you hit the jackpot like that?"

Shuichi averts his gaze and chuckles awkwardly. "No…he's just…a friend? Yeah."

"You don't sound very sure there, buddy." The man clasps his hand onto Shuichi's shoulder and Shuichi looks back up to be met with an intense and determined gaze. But as their gaze meets, both of their eyes widen, struck with some part fear, some part regret, and some part relief. Their eyes only stay connected for so long, however, because the man begins to cough violently, covering his mouth with his hand. Shuichi panics and his heart squeezes again just like that night two years ago. What is it with these eyes? The eyes of the mischievous phantom thief. The star-filled eyes of the upbeat man. The eyes in his dreams.

All sound stops and Shuichi is brought crashing back down into reality and his eyes refocus onto the man, who is now staring down at his hand. "There's…no blood."

Shuichi nods slowly, his body washing over with a sense of calm. "Yeah…there's no blood." Although, the implications of the commentary are rather concerning. "I-Is there _usually_ blood!?"

"...no. No, there isn't."

"Then why did you say that like there is?"

"I dunno! I just feel like there's _supposed_ to be blood!"

" _Why!?_ "

"Because!" He punches his fist into his other hand again, although this time more aggressively.

Despite the oddity of it all, Shuichi agrees. It's almost like the man was _supposed_ to cough up blood.

…

Just like how he felt like the white phantom thief was _supposed_ to have died.

The visions of the eyes blink before him, all varying shades of purple. Waking or sleeping, all he sees is purple. "Well…I'm glad there isn't blood," Shuichi stands up and dusts himself off, "but it's late and I really really must be heading to bed." Shuichi approaches the stairway door and opens it.

"G'night, Shuichi!" The man waves at him with a large and bright smile.

Shuichi waves back and descends the flight of stairs. "Goodnight, Kaito."

~~~~~

Shuichi manages to pick the lock of an unoccupied apartment, and claims it as his own for the night. His dreams are once more filled with smiles and tears and blood and death and _eyes_. He walks through blood, his shoes squelching through the rusty room and around a pair of slippers. Behind him, a figure looms and rocks side-to-side slowly, its feet never reaching the ground. _Blink. Blink._ Two pairs of eyes stare up at him from the blood. When he turns around, the figure opens her eyes as well, and numbly peers down at him.

Shuichi wakes with a start, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. The sun filters through the closed blinds against the dirty window and warms his cheek. He yawns and sits up, his hand going to squeeze the purple jewel as if it were a comfort item. As his head begins to process the effects of reality once more, it comes to his attention that there's music reverberating through the walls, creating a soft echo in his room. Something about it feels familiar and before he has the chance to think, warm tears are already spilling down his cheeks.

Unfortunately, Shuichi doesn't have an extra change of clothes because this isn't his hideout, so he's stuck in his shirt and jeans from last night. However, after hiding the jewel in his bag with his suit, his slings the strap over his shoulder and knocks on his neighbor's door. When it opens, a pair of pinkish-purple eyes stare back at him, and he feels frozen in time.

"Ah, sorry! Did my playing wake you?"

"No…I just…is that Clair de Lune?"

"Yep! I was just going through some classics. Do you know how to play?"

"A-Ah, no, I just…um," Shuichi isn't sure why he's here. He isn't sure why is head is ringing so _loudly_.

The world becomes less purple and starts to become much more _pink_. There's pink on the piano, dripping down onto the floor. In the mess on the floor is a piece of a sleeve, now dyed with pink. His hands are stained with pink because it's all _his fault._

He can hear muffled cries of distress as his vision goes foggy, and he feels the back of his head collide with the floor.

~~~~~

Shuichi can hear a dull beeping sound beside him. It doesn't exactly sound like an alarm, but he limply moves his hand to try and turn it off anyway. The issue with that is, however, that, with a metallic clank, his hand is jerked slightly from a limited range of motion. Cracking open his eyes, Shuichi comes to the realization that he is handcuffed to a hospital bed.

_Fuck._

He tugs at the handcuff, gaze dancing between his arm and the door, watching for both doctors and the police. This isn't good. His glancing becomes more rushed as he pulls more frantically. The beeping of the monitor quickens steadily with his heartbeat, and his panicked breathing fogs his mind and mixes all sounds together into one large cacophony of fear.

"Nishishi," it's quiet, a whisper, but it stops Shuichi in his tracks, his mind reeling. "You look like you've never been handcuffed to a bed before, Detective~ Although I do wonder why you are...suspicious, isn't it? But that's a lie! I've heard the news~ my beloved Detective has become a phantom thief ever since the night I was shot. Don't tell me you did it for _me_. Oh, how romantic, I'm fanning myself."

Slowly, Shuichi turns around to meet his old nemesis face-to-face, in the same condition as himself: handcuffed to a hospital bed. "You—…"

"Yep! I'm alive~ but there's not much time to discuss that. Thanks to your freak-out just now, doctors are probably on their way to check on you, so we only have so much time to escape."

"K-Kokichi, we're handcuffed...!"

He blinks, pausing for a moment, and then smiles fondly. " _Are we?_ " Kokichi lifts up both of his hands, completely free of handcuffs.

"B-But _how?_ "

"You're a pretty shitty phantom thief, huh Shuichi? I'll explain later, now let's go." He grabs Shuichi's hand and before he can even blink, Shuichi finds the two of them soaring out the window. He'd question how Kokichi managed to get hang-gliders, but he always was a mystery. Smiling against his partner, Shuichi flies off, this time being the one to stand out—clad in black in the daylight.

~~~~~

Shuichi looks around the hideout. It's much bigger than the one he was using, that's for sure. But he also hadn't expected Kokichi to be working with others. Although, perhaps he should have. Does that mean they're DICE? "So, well—"

"Shuiiiiiichiiiiiiiii, you're so boring, _geez_! I-I take you back to my home and you don't even say ' _thank you_ ' _!?_ What happened to loving me forever and everrrrrrr?" Kokichi begins to wail loudly, but Shuichi can recognize the tears as being fake. At least he thinks they're fake. … There's about a 70% chance that they're crocodile tears.

"A-Ah? Um…"

"What, so you don't remember that part?" As if on cue, the tears dissipate and Kokichi begins to pick at his nails instead. "How selective and _boring_." His gaze does glance up to Shuichi, and there's something hidden in it that he can't quite read.

"I…um…" it's hard, but he stares into Kokichi's eyes, the purple grounding him. Everything is so different now. Every life has seemed relatively similar before, but now…how did they end up here? Shuichi smiles, then begins to laugh. As he laughs, he cries. And the tears continue to pool out until his laughs turn into sobs and he falls to the floor. Kokichi gently wraps his arms around the other and holds him close.

"It's okay, Shuichi. We're safe now. And we'll always find each other." Though his body is wracked with sobs, Shuichi nods his head and holds Kokichi back.

" _It's okay_ ," he repeats shakily. "It's okay…" After two years of hunting down jewels, after two years of feeling guilt over an unnamed phantom thief dressed in pure white, after two years of memories slowly coming back to him in dreams, he's returned to Kokichi.

He is home.

And all he sees is purple.


	2. All I See is You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some short fluff of the boys after a heist

Shuichi has been a phantom thief for a little over six years now; his suit a deep black—a stark contrast to Kokichi's pure white. It's an interesting career choice after being a detective in all of his previous lives, and even once chasing Kokichi down from the police force in this life as well. But now he's here, and the warmth of his husband's hand hasn't changed at all.

The adrenaline of a chase also hasn't changed, even though he's now on the other side of it. Running hand-in-hand with Kokichi, he looks back at all of the guards and grins. Skipping over steps and running to the edge of the roof, the pair turn around and raise up their free hands.

"There's nowhere to run! You're under arrest for—"

"Nowhere to run, hmm~? Shumai, would you say there's nowhere else to go?" Kokichi looks up at him innocently and bats his eyelashes.

"Well, ah…isn't there a saying? Um…there's nowhere to go but up?"

"HEYA BOSS! ABOUT TIME!" The crackling of a megaphone is muffled under the helicopter's propellor, as a DICE member—well, I suppose they're not called DICE this time—flies their escape around another building, revealing herself and tossing out a rope ladder.

"As I said: Nowhere but up."

"Nishishishi! See ya later, officers~!" The two grab onto the rope and the helicopter flies off. Bullets chase after them, but they never hit.

Once inside the helicopter, Kokichi hollers and shoots his arms up in excitement and Shuichi laughs. "Oh my _god_! Did you see the looks on their faces!? Priceless. These jewels though?" He holds up the bag of loot and shakes it around a bit. "Worth a _fortune_. Your exit line was pretty good too, Shu."

Shuichi chuckles and bows slightly in his seat, "why thank you."

They fly over the city, Kokichi leaning over his seat to watch the scenery below, and Shuichi holding onto him for dear life so that he doesn't fall out on accident. They fly over to a deserted countryside and land. It's quiet and a little far from from society, but it's safe and it's home. They go inside and Shuichi makes tea for the three of them. "Good work today."

Kokichi takes his cup from Shuichi and pulls the other down to sit with him. "You too! You've finally started improving over these past four years, although you are still like a little baby."

Shuichi chuckles and leans into Kokichi. "If I was still new at this, would I be able to do this?" He twists his wrist and flashes his palm momentarily, a sliver of gold blinking in the sunlight and the light reflecting off the cut faces of a small, lavender jewel.

"Hey! My ring!" Kokichi launches up and grabs for his wedding band, but Shuichi is quick and is already on his feet, running away and laughing. Kokichi bolts after him, spilling his tea, and their witness sighs, although she's smiling.

They run around the base for a while, Kokichi shouting profanities and Shuichi taunting the other. It's funny how people can change over the course of time. This isn't at all where Shuichi ever expected to be, but he wouldn't change it for the world. He's happy. And, waking up and going to sleep, all he sees is purple.

And all Kokichi sees is blue.

**Author's Note:**

> They are now partners in crime, hecka yeah bois


End file.
